Common diagnostics products for companion animals include analyzer instruments used at clinics, immunodiagnostic assays based on lateral flow design, and more sophisticated laboratory immunoassays completed on plates with microwells and slides. Molecular diagnostics represents a growing, though minor segment of the market with the laboratory utilization of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and microarray tests. Market development for companion animal diagnostics has depended heavily upon the purchasing and usage of in-clinic analyzers or diagnostic instruments used at veterinary practices. While outside veterinary reference laboratories continue to play a major role in companion animal diagnostics, in-clinic diagnostics is the key feature of the contemporary market.

Food animal diagnostics assist livestock and production animal preventive care and complement other measures such as vaccination and selective breeding. Immunodiagnostic and molecular diagnostic products are used to monitor, manage and eradicate infectious diseases found in prevalent, highly dense food animal populations. The food animal diagnostics market is closely aligned with governmental efforts to protect domestic industries and human populaces from the ravages of outbreaks that include not only heavy economic losses and hunger, but also the transmission of disease into human populations.